Coroner: Two men killed by train at Emmaus border

Two people were killed Monday afternoon when they were hit by a freight train at the Emmaus-Upper Milford Township border, Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said.

Two people were killed Monday afternoon when they were hit by a freight train at the Emmaus-Upper Milford Township border, Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said.

Manuel Gamiz Jr., Of The Morning Call

Two young men were killed Monday afternoon when they were hit by a freight train at the Emmaus-Upper Milford Township border, Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said.

According to police radio reports, the two were hit about 3:30 p.m. by an eastbound train just east of Pickles restaurant and Hursh's Landscaping in Upper Milford.

Several men who worked for the landscaping company rushed to the Weis Market on Chestnut Street, Emmaus, in a truck and minivan. They said they feared the train victims were their co-workers.

Two co-workers had left work to go to the bus stop at the Weis, and they walked across the tracks to avoid crossing the bridge over the railroad, the Hursh's workers said. They said their co-workers often took the 15-minute walk on the tracks as an alternative to the heavy traffic and narrow shoulders of Chestnut Street.

Grim said Monday night he had talked with Hursh's Landscaping officials, but he could not yet name the two dead because positive identifications were not complete and relatives had not yet been notified. He said one man was declared dead on the scene at 4:15 p.m., the other at 4:17 p.m.

Autopsies are scheduled on Tuesday.

Grim said the accident happened along the 1500 block of Chestnut Street, Route 29, in Upper Milford Township.

Hursh's co-workers said the missing employees were 22 to 25 years old, and both had worked at the company a few months. The co-workers said they weren't certain the two were hit by the train, but they have not been able to reach either by cellphone and the two never showed up to catch the bus at the Weis.

"They were the only two on the tracks at the time," said one co-worker. "And I was going to walk with them."

At least twice, several co-workers frantically tried to check the rails toward the stopped train for signs of someone wearing a red Hursh's Landscaping T-shirt, but they were turned away by police before they got close enough to see.

"We just want to know if they were wearing a red shirt," one said.

Hursh's Landscaping officials declined to comment at the scene.

Grim was on the scene as Norfolk Southern railroad officials and state police from the Fogelsville barracks began their investigation. The Norfolk Southern train was stopped just west of the Weis Market for two hours after the accident.

Two tracks run through the area where the accident happened. The train was running on the track closest to Chestnut Street and investigators appeared to focus their attention to vegetation in that area.

The men apparently were walking just east of a bend in the tracks, where a bridge, a hill and vegetation block the view of the tracks to the west. The men crossed one track safely before they moved to the second track.